© 2020 Patrick Morelli
© 2020 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Patrick Morelli (France)
The island of Paradise is the source of all the energetic power of the Universe and all the gigantic masses of creation gravitate around this body.
We know that it appears as a vast flattened ellipsoid whose major axis is one-sixth longer than its minor axis and its “thickness” (the distance between the upper surface and the lower surface) is one-tenth of the minor axis. We also know that this central Island is (UB 11:0.1) “the most gigantic organized body of cosmic reality in the entire master universe”.
The most gigantic organized body certainly, but could we get a vague idea of it?
The Urantia Book gives many details of what lies on the upper surface as well as on the peripheral surface; but as we have no idea of the areas required for these vast achievements and projects, it is impossible for us to deduce any overall area.
However, if we step back a little, the Book provides an interesting astronomical clue: The Paradise-Havona Standard Day!
You should know, beforehand, that three circuits of worlds gravitate around Paradise before the circles of Havona and they are located between the first circle of Havona and the Isle of Paradise.
It is the time taken by the first circuit (the one closest to Paradise which is the circuit of the worlds of the Father) to make a complete revolution, which defines the time of a standard “Paradise-Havona” day which corresponds to 1000 years of our Urantian time: (UB 14:1.12) “A day of Paradise-Havona corresponds just to a thousand years of the present Urantia calendar which includes leap years, minus seven minutes, three seconds and one eighth of a second.”
Consequently, if we could have an idea of the speed of movement of these worlds it would be easy for us to calculate the circumference of the circle which encompasses the Isle of Paradise, and also, the diameter of this circle; since we know perfectly well the time of this journey: a thousand years.
How fast can these worlds move?
The Book provides a clue: (UB 14:1.12) “Although their speed is enormous because they (the planets of the first circuit) are located between the dark gravity bodies and the gigantic Paradise”
So what is huge speed?
Certainly something between the speed of our world around the sun (28.88 km/second) and the speed of light (299,792 km/second); knowing that the speed of light is only permitted for quasi-immaterial particles (photons) and that imposing solid bodies remain very far from such a speed.
Specialists usually consider the maximum speed for interstellar vessels to be a speed of around one tenth of the speed of light, or 29,979 km/second. At this speed, it would therefore take us around fifty years to reach the nearest star.
Furthermore, we can conjecture that if our world went a thousand times faster it would be an enormous speed, namely 28,888 km/second and curiously that also corresponds approximately to a tenth of the speed of light.
Therefore, if we retain the speed of 1/10 of the speed of light for the worlds of the first circuit of Paradise, and knowing that they take 1000 years to make a turn; then the length of the distance traveled is 100 light years (LY) and if we assimilate it to a circle, the diameter is 31.8 LY.
Paradise Island is located in the center of this circle, but what volume does it occupy?
Referring to a well-known astronomical configuration, let us consider that Paradise Island and its first circuit are in the same proportions as our planet with the Moon.
Some relatively simple calculations lead to the conclusion
that the diameter of the Earth represents 1.63% of the diameter of the circle described by the Moon around us.
So, all things being equal, Paradise Island would have a diameter of around 1.63% of 31.8 LY or 0.518 light years.
As a first conclusion, we can hypothesize that the length of the major axis of Paradise would be of the order of the distance traveled by light during half a year (exactly 189 days) which is, without a doubt, enormous. We have understood that the faster the worlds of the first circuit go, the larger the circle and the larger Paradise.
If we retain a lower speed: 1/100 of the speed of light or 2998 km/second; then the length of the first circuit is only 10 AL, the diameter 3.18 AL and the major axis of Paradise Island estimated at the distance traveled by light in 18.9 days, which remains considerable when we know that the solar system as a whole is 2 to 3 light days in diameter.
In conclusion, in the logic of this approach, we can estimate that the length of the major axis of Paradise would be between 0.05 and 0.5 light years.